Embedded within MIT & Harvard Medical School, the Collective accelerates science & engineering collaborations that improve human well-being globally.

Joined September 2025
USA Today spotlights Yang Center for Bionics Co-Director Hugh Herr's efforts to connect bionic limbs to nerves and muscles, creating a natural extension of the body. usatoday.com/story/news/2026โ€ฆ
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How does the brain know when drinking is quenching thirst ๐Ÿง ๐Ÿšฐ? Introduced by Yang Brain-Body Center Director Polina Anikeeva, Prof. Sung-Yon Kim @syk_net of Seoul National University discussed his research with the MIT community at the Yang Brain-Body Center Seminar on Oct 13.
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Researchers from Yang ICoN Center, including ICoN postdoc fellow @qianli_liao, were successful in designing a self-organizing computational neural network that approaches learning like a brain โ€” adjusting itself as it learns without outside input. news.mit.edu/2026/how-artifiโ€ฆ
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Congratulations to K. Lisa Yang ICoN Postdoctoral Fellow @devarda_a, who has been named one of the 2026 @statnews #STATWunderkinds! ๐Ÿ‘๐ŸŽ‰ ๐Ÿ”— Read more: statnews.com/wunderkinds/andโ€ฆ
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Join us next week for the K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center at MIT seminar with Professor Sung-Yon Kim @syk_net from Seoul National University. We hope to see you there! ๐Ÿ’ฌ How Does Drinking Rapidly Quench Thirst? ๐Ÿ—“๏ธ Tuesday, October 13 | 3-4 PM ๐Ÿ”— yangtan.mit.edu/about-us/ourโ€ฆ
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Recap of the Alumni Talk Series: @NogaZaslavsky gave career advice at an intimate lunch with the Collective community and discussed her research ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ: ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜€๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ๐— ๐˜€! ๐Ÿ’ฌ
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Thank you everyone for joining this event and we hope you see you at the next talk!
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Join us for the Yang Tan Collective Alumni Talk Series featuring Noga Zaslavsky, a former ICoN Postdoc Fellow; sheโ€™s currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University. โฌ‡๏ธ ๐Ÿ”— For more information, please visit: yangtan.mit.edu/about-us/ourโ€ฆ
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๐Ÿ“š Noga's research integrates information theory, machine learning, + cognitive science to study the computational principles underlying language, learning, and reasoning in humans and AI.
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Former Yang ICoN Fellow and current assistant professor in the CMU School of Computer Science @aran_nayebi talks about neuroscience + AI in Does Compute, a podcast presented by Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science and GeekWire Studios. youtube.com/watch?v=-U7S6lfTโ€ฆ
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A gene therapy developed by Guoping Feng & team at the Tan-Yang Center for Autism Research is now in clinical trials for Phelan-McDermid syndrome. In this talk at the @Phelan_McDermid Family Conference, Feng shares the science behind the therapy โฌ‡๏ธ ๐Ÿ”—๐Ÿ“บ bit.ly/4xyDz7M
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Watch K. Lisa Yang ICoN Graduate Fellow Davy Deng discuss the topic of mind-uploading (or whole brain emulation) and how C. elegans, a 1 mm worm with an impressive resume, contributes to it in his TEDxMIT talk โ€œWhat does mind-uploading actually require?โ€ youtube.com/watch?v=gyDwkCBKโ€ฆ
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Yang Tan Collective co-founder Hock Tan was recently featured as a prominent leader in TIMEโ€™s list of 100 Most Influential People in AI (TIME100 AI 2026). Congratulations! ๐Ÿ‘ ๐Ÿ”— Read more about his work and partnerships: time.com/collection/time100-โ€ฆ
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Ming Liu, a Yang ICoN Postdoctoral Fellow, imaged a cell's ultrastructure with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to be able to view essential organelles. ๐Ÿ”ฌ Wang lab and Dorkenwald lab at MIT + Lee lab at HMS. Images were created together w/ Liu and a Harvard grad studentโฌ‡๏ธ
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๐Ÿ’ฌ โ€œWe will reconstruct 3D volumes of brain connectivity based on these 2D EM images, aiming to map the hard wire across different neurons in the brain and understand how their wiring patterns generate the brain functions, which is breathing rhythmogenesis in our projects." -Liu
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What if we could engineer scientific revolutions rather than wait for them to happen? Yang Tan Collectiveโ€™s @eboyden3 and Denisa Lepadatu explore a provocative new model for accelerating discovery in their Substack article. ๐Ÿ“š Read more: uniconq.substack.com/p/the-gโ€ฆ
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Ed Boyden & his team, including Zeguan Wang ('25-'26 J. Douglas Tan Postdoc Fellow), invented a microscope that can capture high-res images of a brainโ€™s electrical impulses from individual neuronsโ€”allowing researchers to further study how the brain works in varied situations. โฌ‡๏ธ
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Co-authors @amoswinter and Vijay Govindarajan introduce & discuss their new book ๐—š๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป (released on August 11 ๐ŸŽ‰) on @HarvardBiz IdeaCast; โ€œThe Innovation Strategy Most Companies Missโ€ ep 1091. ๐ŸŽง Listen: hbr.org/podcast/2026/08/the-โ€ฆ
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๐Ÿ“š Purchase ๐—š๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป: ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—–๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—œ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ฆ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฒ, ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ here: a.co/d/00DBxwnn
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